War has come to the United States. It’s been brewing for years as the government and Military Police wage war on the outcasts known as the Bionics. It’s spilling out into the streets as the militant Rejects continue to wage war against the ‘inferior’ humans, the M.P.s are raiding neighborhoods and putting Bionics to death, and I am fighting alongside the Resistance to save our kind from extinction. To top it all off, the president has now declared martial law, and the rights of American citizens are being stripped away one by one.

Together, with the vigilante known as The Patriot, and my Resistance family, I am prepared to fight the impossible fight, to stand up for what’s right. From a single spark, our little rebellion has grown into a revolution, a roaring fire that will envelop the nation. At the same time, things in my personal life are finally turning around. I’m in love with a beautiful girl who loves me back, and we might have a shot at a real future … unless the enemy manages to snatch away from me everything that I hold dear.

A weapon’s muzzle suddenly comes up to the back of my head and I freeze, lifting my hands and the CBX with it. An M.P. in white, fiberglass armor circles around me, the gun now focused on my forehead. I can see just by looking that he has it on the kill setting.

“Look, man,” I say calmly. “I’m not one of them. I’m on your side here.”

He raises the face shield of his helmet, and I’m face to face with a fresh recruit. He can’t be any older than eighteen and skinny as a rail, shaking like a leaf. “Don’t come any closer,” he says, his high-pitched voice trembling with the force of his fear. Around us, the fight rages on. “You’re all the same, just a bunch of freaks.”

I shrug. “Come on, dude. We both know I could have killed you by now. But I’m not here to fight you. We just want justice. Look around you and you’ll see the real killers, the real freaks. Turn your gun on them, and I’ll do the same.”

He frowns. “Fight with you?”

“With me, next to me, behind me, whatever. What’s your name, kid?”

He swallows noisily, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Ethan.”

I nod. “Okay, Ethan, I’m Dax. You got a girl, Ethan?”

Ethan lowers the gun. “Yeah… I mean, kind of. She doesn’t really know I like her.”

I smile. “Been there, man, done that. I got a girl too, back home. I kind of told her I loved her a few days ago.”

Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa, that’s huge.”

“Right? Big stuff. Plus, I promised her I’d try to make it back alive. The way I see it, I stand a better chance of that if we can try to fight together, even if it’s just for today. What do you think? Let’s end this shit so we can get home. You have a girl to win over, and I’d rather not piss mine off by coming home in a body bag.”

Ethan nods. “Yeah. Yeah, okay, sure.”

My hand grasps his shoulder just as a flying metal disc comes whizzing at his head. He cries out as I take him to the ground, just barely saving him from being decapitated. I’m not quite as lucky. The metal disc slices into my cheek as it flies by, laying it open. Pain explodes along the left side of my face, leaving a trail of fire that goes from my jaw to just beneath my eye. Another inch and I’d be sporting a falsie like Blythe. Behind Ethan, one of the Rejects has some sort of makeshift gun mounted on his shoulder. It’s the size of a small cannon, and it is shooting another disc at me. Dropping for cover and avoiding another gash, I grab Ethan’s shoulder again.

“You good?”

He stares at me with wide eyes and nods. “Yeah.”

“Cool. Stay down while I kill this dickhead.”

This time when he fires at me, I’m ready. The pistons in my leg joints fire rapidly and I jump, my boot connecting with the disc and kicking it back the way it came. I give Ethan a hand up as the Reject’s head slides from his shoulders, taken off by his own disc.

“Can dish it out but can’t take it,” I grumble as I help Ethan to his feet.

He smiles at me appreciatively. “You saved my life, man. Thanks.”

“No need to thank me. Now, let’s go save some others.”

Be sure to grab your copy of book one, The Bionics, on Amazon for FREE!!

About the Author:

Ever since she first read books like Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. The mother of two and wife to an Army sergeant loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

An underground female mafia rights the wrongs of an unjust society in this gripping story of everyday women taking matters into their own hands where the justice system has failed. For many years they have worked quietly and gone unnoticed by the world in which they live, until one of them goes missing. The wrong people start asking questions and before they know it, they are in danger of being exposed. How will they save one of their own without putting their organization in danger? Will they be able to remain a secret?

“Fairytales always start with once upon a time and end with happily ever after. Somewhere in the middle there's a prince, an evil queen and a distressed maiden, a victim of her own beauty. Gallantly, the prince rides in, saving his true love, proving his manhood and once again restoring balance to the universe. My fairytale was not like that at all.

Let’s take for example my ex-husband Ron. In my fairy tale, Ron was no prince. Don’t get me wrong; I truly believe he started off with good intentions. But, then he lost his job and started drinking, and I became his personal punching bag. After the third miscarriage I was told I could never have children. At that point, I really didn't care if I died.

But, on one particular evening back in 1977, something happened that would change my life forever. I came home from the grocery store to find Ron sitting on the front steps of our house with his usual can of beer suctioned to his left hand as if it were an extension of his fingers. I could tell he had been drinking all day and was itching for a fight, so I didn’t even bother asking for help with the groceries. I still had to walk up the steps and past him to get to the front door. I prayed he didn’t attack me until I had at least put the food away. I walked at a slow pace, avoiding eye contact and carefully slinked passed him hoping not to hit the back of him with the screen door as I squeezed through. I made it into the kitchen and managed to at least put away the frozen food, eggs and milk before he threw the first punch.

When it was finally over, I was lying on my back on the front lawn, covered in blood. I thought for sure I would be dead any minute, judging from the amount of blood pouring out of my nose and the severity of the pain coursing through my body. But then something happened. I saw out of the corner of my eye a little boy, Patrick, standing in the street staring at Ron as he sat on the front steps drinking his beer and watching me die. Patrick lived in our neighborhood. He stood there holding his baseball glove and ball and just stared at Ron for almost two whole minutes. I wanted to scream for him to run away but no sound would come out of my mouth. Then, as if he heard my thoughts, he turned and ran as fast as he could towards his house. I was happy he was safe, I didn’t want Ron to hurt him and I didn’t want that poor boy to be the witness to my death.

I blacked out again for a while and waited for death to take me.

But it never came. Instead, two women from the neighborhood came running towards me and picked me up off the front lawn. I don’t recall much at the time but I do remember some words being exchanged between Priscilla and Ron. I didn’t know Priscilla that well, other than that she was a nurse at the local hospital and that she was Patrick’s mother. He must have run to her for help. I feared Ron might hurt them too, but I couldn’t speak or move. I was a ragdoll, lifeless in their arms as they carried me back to their house. That was the last time I ever saw Ron. I don’t know what happened and I didn’t ask questions. I was just grateful that they found me when they did because not only did they save my life, but they changed the course of it forever.

My name is Camille Waters and a lot has changed since 1977. On the surface I appear as an ordinary southern woman in her 50's, sitting on a porch swing sipping sweet tea or reading trashy romance novels down by the pier. But much like a fairytale, nothing is ever what it seems. The year is 2014 and I’m not that same woman anymore. Now I work for an underground society of women with one purpose- to right the wrongs of society where the justice system has failed.

If someone in the neighborhood was having a problem, we'd find a way to introduce ourselves, let her know that she wasn’t alone.

Some folks think we ought to just mind our own business and let the authorities do their job. Well guess what? We did that already. Women have been sitting in silence for centuries, and it sure as hell didn’t get us anywhere. Men beat their wives, girls get date raped, family members molest their young and the burden of proof lies on the shoulders of the victims, every time. Statistics show that women are more likely to leave a bad situation if they have a strong support group to turn too and that’s exactly what we strive to provide. Life is hard enough without having to constantly watch good people get hurt. Some call us modern day Iron Jawed Angels, others call us extremists, but we like to call ourselves, The Butterflies.

It’s time for a change, time to wake-up and smell the revolution; time for us to close the door on the old way of doing things; time to find a system that works for everyone involved. It’s time for the Butterflies Wake.”- Camille Waters

About the Author:

Within the past year, Lagos has published a Young Adult Science-Fiction Fantasy series called Beyond Earth Series made up of three books, “Beyond Earth”, “Beyond Planets” and “Beyond Time”. She also has had 12 of her short stories published this past year in three separate anthologies called “Giant Tales Beyond The Mystic Doors”, “Giant Tales From The Misty Swamp” and “Giant Tales: Down in the World of Pirates”. Her latest novel is, “Butterflies Wake”. Lagos resides in Massachusetts with her husband and her daughter.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Normalcy. I need to get back to a state of normalcy. What’s happened to me? Why am I here in this orphanage, and why am I forbidden to leave? Everyone is so very cruel here. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It’s the paranoia getting to me. It’s like someone’s always watching, always listening. There’s a general fear around here, and for some reason, it seems fueled by my arrival, but why are they afraid of me? I didn’t ask for this. I don’t even know how I got here. I need to go home. My parents must be worried sick. There has to be someone here who can help me, who can give me answers and lead me in the right direction so I can get out of here. There is this one boy, Lydic. Could he be my key to getting out? I can see it in his eyes he feels sorry for me. He seems to know more than he’s letting on. These people aren’t like anyone I’ve ever met before.

“What is that sound?” I asked in a whisper.It was still far away but growing louder and closer by the minute.

Lydic put his arm behind his back and opened his hand for me to take it.I slid my fingers into his and waited for him to let me know what to do next.My heart was pounding out of my chest.Another second passed and then Lydic turned, his eyes locked on mine as he nodded his head.We took off to try to outrun whatever it was that was coming for us.We had only gotten two steps in before I felt Lydic’s grasp on my hand slip away.I turned around to see what was happening.I screamed out in horror as Lydic was frozen in place.He was still on his feet, but his head was drawn back and his eyes rolling into his head as if in extreme pain.

“Lydic!” I cried out.

The old woman was behind him.She had that stick, the same one I had tripped over, held up in the air and aimed at Lydic’s head.There were bright colors, green and yellow, pouring out from the end of the stick and going directly into his skull.The woman’s expression was one of determination.Her eyes were closed and her lips pressed together as she mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

What are you going to do?Panic seized me.Lydic was supposed to help me, not the other way around.I didn’t know what to do.I had to stop this, but how?

The high-pitched whistling grew louder and more intense.It was starting to hurt my ears.My gut told me that if I didn’t make a move now, it was going to be too late.

I took a step toward the stick and reached out and grabbed it with my hand.I used all the strength I had to yank it from the grasp of the old woman.Lydic fell to his knees.The woman glared at me, a low growl escaping from her throat.She lunged toward me.Without having time to think, I instinctively swung the large stick at her, using it as a bat and she was the ball.It collided with her head making a grotesque sound.She collapsed to the ground.Lydic looked up at me.I was breathing hard, trying to understand what had just happened.

“What do we do?” I asked.The whistling noise was almost to us, but I still couldn’t see anything.

Lydic glanced over his shoulder at the woman.“Run!”

About the Author:

Sara V. Zook is a paranormal/fantasy writer. She is the author of the Strange in Skin Trilogy, Clipped and Evanescent, Book 1 in The Sempiternal Series. She lives in Pennsylvania with her 3 small children and husband.